1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an aligning jig for loose wires, which arranges a plurality of loose wires in a prescribed arranging order, and glues and fixes these loose wires in a ribbon shape, while maintaining their prescribed width.
2. Description of Related Art
To perform connection or the like between optical fibers for optical communication or between optical fibers and an optical connector, a fusion splicing device, which fusion-splices a plurality of optical fibers in a batch at a time, is used. When using such a fusion splicing device to fusion-splice loose optical fibers, conventionally, an aligning jig, which aligns the optical fibers into a form of tape to shape them into a ribbon-like tape fiber of a prescribed width, is used to permit easy handling of a plurality of optical fibers.
As such an aligning jig, there is, for example, a jig which has a retaining member for retaining a plurality of loose wires, and an aligning member which is allowed to slide along a slide guide, retains one end of the loose wires by the foregoing retaining member, places and lays the loose wires in a predetermined order into an aligning groove, which is formed in a vertical direction of the foregoing aligning member, aligns the loose wires into a tape form, with no looseness left, between the retaining member and the aligning member by sliding the aligning member along the slide guide, then applies adhesive or the like to these aligned loose wires to form them into a ribbon-like tape fiber.
When shaping a plurality of optical fibers into a tape by using the aforementioned aligning jig, the width of the alinging groove is set slightly greater than the diameter of the optical fiber to provide a play since the optical fibers are laid into the aligning groove formed in the vertical direction. This presents a problem wherein some of the optical fibers are partially dislocated from the aligning direction by that play when the optical fibers are aligned into a tape form, adversely affecting the aligning accuracy. Furthermore, since the aligning groove is formed vertically, if optical fibers are arranged in a wrong order, then all optical fibers above the wrong optical fiber must be removed from the aligning groove and rearranged, resulting in a complicated operation.
Additionally, the jig is disadvantageous in that a plurality of optical fibers are aligned into the form of a tape by sliding the aligning member, causing the optical fibers to produce friction with the aligning groove when the aligning member is slid, consequently scratching the sheaths of the optical fibers, and the jig requires troublesome handling and cannot be easily used unless the operator is skilled in handling.